The Family Business

The Baby’s First Words

We look forward to the first words of our babies. We coax our babies and grandbabies to say our names first. “Mom” “Dad” “Mimi” or “Pops” are the first words that we want to hear (unless it is 3 a.m.). First words reveal a child’s personality, likes and dislikes, and their passions. Over this Christmas season we will be looking at the first words of Jesus and will find the purpose and meaning of Christmas.

Family Dynamics

If families have nothing else, they have stories. These stories often come from the complications of life. In the case of Jesus, His first decade of life was complicated. His father was Joseph but, not really. His birth father was God, the Heavenly Father. His earthly father was Joseph. Supernaturally Jesus was conceived in Mary. His earliest visitors were shepherds, angels, nobility, and stable animals. He was whisked out of Israel and into Egypt because the King wanted to kill him. Sometime later He would return to his earthly father’s home and trade as a carpenter. The next time that we see Jesus is at the age of 12 in Jerusalem.

Luke 2:41–52 NIV

Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

Fathers look forward to when the son steps into the family business. I know that Joseph didn’t have a company truck but maybe he had hoped to put “Joseph and Sons” up on the sign in front of his shop. I suspect that this incident in Jerusalem made Joseph realize that Jesus had other plans.

We don’t really know the thoughts of Joseph but verse 51 says Mary was thinking about what was going on. Up to this point it seems that the upbringing of Jesus was quite normal. You can’t really blame Joseph and Mary; the disciples were slow to catch on as well.

“Father and Son”

What is clear is that Jesus reveals the relationship He has with the Heavenly Father.

Luke 2:49 NIV

“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

Luke 2:49–50 M:BCL

He said, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?” But they had no idea what he was talking about.

Of course, this could only happen once with Jesus, but can you imagine your 12-year-old son talking about his loyalty, duty, and resolve for a father other than Joseph? Thankfully, for us, Jesus reveals the Heavenly Father in a very special way. Before Jesus the Jews acknowledged God the Father but had done so like He was the ‘baby daddy’ – not a loving Father who wanted to be on the floor playing with the kids.

‘Thou, O Lord, art our Father’, the Jews of old had said. But it is almost certain that they understood by this little more than that it was God who had brought their nation into being; and although the patriarchal communities of the days of Abraham were embedded in their national history as patterns of the family relationship which should exist between God and his people, the idea of his fatherhood was something they had never fully grasped—certainly not in the way that Jesus was going to teach it.[2]

Jesus would teach that the Heavenly Father was knowable, loving, and powerful. He would teach that there was a way to access the Father. In simple terms, the Heavenly Father was both God and Good.

The Father is God

There is an interesting pattern throughout the Bible. At the beginning God created man in His image (Gen 1:26-28), Adam had a son in his image (Gen 5:3), and Jesus was the Father’s image.

Colossians 1:15 NIV

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

You may remember the story from the Bible when the nation of Israel had lost it’s way and had begun to worship other gods. The prophet Elijah challenged the false prophets to a duel on a mountain. The nation was to see which god would respond by causing fire to come down and consume a sacrifice. The false gods were ‘no shows’ but when it was the true God, He showed up in a big way! Elijah had soaked the sacrifice with water but fire from Heaven consumed the sacrifice. Michael Wilcock, a Brit, describes the True God.

The true God is “not just a companionable God who can be sidled up to and nestled against, but an awesome God before whom the worshipper prostrates himself, a wrathful God whose raised right arm can shake the universe.… God remains, in religious utterance, pre-eminently our Father even though a father, as currently imaged, is no longer either authoritative or even dignified. For the comic strips in the cheap Press have reduced the father to the stature of a genial and clumsy butt. He is a friendly but rather awkward bear about the house. He fills up the armchair, he has to be kept in a good humor; but he must not be taken too seriously. He is the poor fish who pays for unauthorized purchases by willful and frivolous womenfolk. He loses his pipe, forgets his umbrella, drops parcels in the street, and bursts the buttons from his braces. His highest delights are provided by the sporting pages of the daily Press; his familiar misfortune is the lawnmower; his bitterest agonies are associated with income tax.”[3]

Before we change the topic to the fact that God is good, we must acknowledge the fact that God is firm. He is just and true. He is holy and that should never be forgotten.

The Father is Good

Last week we sang the song Good, Good Father which became popular mainly due to Chris Tomlin. He, in fact, didn’t write it. Pat Barrett and Anthony Brown did. Tony revealed that he had no dad. “The only one I’ve ever called ‘Father’ is God”. Barrett points out that “this song helps you unlearn damaging things you heard about God”. Here are some of the lines of the song…

· I’ve heard the tender whisper of love in the dead of night, and You tell me that You’re pleased and that I’m never alone

· You know just what we need before we say a word

· You’re a good Father. It’s who You are and I’m loved by You It’s who I am,

The song became enormously popular, probably the most sung chorus on Father’s Day and big on Thanksgiving. When we get a healthy view of our Heavenly Father, we get set up to be spiritually healthy.

“There was no title (Hudson Taylor) more loved to use for God than ‘Father,’ and there was no attitude he more rejoiced to adopt than that of a trustful child.… ‘I am taking my children with me,’ he wrote shortly before leaving England, ‘and I notice that it is not difficult for me to remember that the little ones need breakfast in the morning, dinner at midday, and something before they go to bed at night. Indeed I could not forget it, and I find it impossible to suppose that our Heavenly Father is less tender or mindful than I.’ …

“‘I do not believe,’ he wrote, ‘that our Heavenly Father will ever forget His children. I am a very poor father, but it is not my habit to forget my children. God is a very very good Father, it is not His habit to forget His children.’ ”

Prayer to Hudson Taylor was “a word to the Big Heart from the little one.” One of his proverbial utterances was: “Before I was a father, I thought God never wouldforget me; but since I have been a father, I know God never can forget me.”[4]

Jesus told His mother that He needed to be in His Father’s house or in some translations, “Be about the Father’s business”. Jesus took it seriously, and that is why it is important for us to see that in the very first words of Jesus. He is focused on the family business.

An Invitation to the Family Business

You have an invitation to be a son of God.

John 1:11–13 NIV

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

“To those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. You have an invitation to join the family business! But, the sad thing is that not everyone joins the business. All of humanity can be a part of the family business but only those who accept the offer become children of God.

A.W. Tozer is more popular now than he was in life. The reason is that he said things that people didn’t want to hear. Here is one of his statements…

“It is so much easier to blur the lines of separation and so offend no one. Pious generalities and the use of we to mean both Christians and unbelievers is much safer. The fatherhood of God can be stretched to include everyone from Jack the Ripper to Daniel the Prophet. Thus no one is offended and everyone feels quite snug and ready for heaven.” Source: A. W. Tozer, The Divine Conquest (Oliphants, 1950), 115–16.[5]

You don’t join God’s family business just by existing. It is through salvation and accepting Jesus for who He is and living in relationship with Him. “The Christian believes in Jesus Christ and has learned through Him to call God Father. He lives and moves in his Father’s world. He draws his breath in his Father’s air. His body is sustained by his Father’s power. He is a prince in his Father’s kingdom, an heir on his Father’s estate.”[6]

1 John 3:1–3 NIV

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

This is what water baptism recognizes, “I’ve bought into it. I believe Jesus is who He said He is. I’m a part of the ‘Father and Sons’. I’m a part of the family.”

Salvation

You may have noticed that Jesus another question that I haven’t even mentioned. He said, 49“Why were you searching for me?” For us today we could rephrase the question to be “Why seek Jesus?” So, the 1st statements of Jesus in Luke are:

Why seek me (Jesus)?

Why did Jesus come?

“Why seek me?” We could launch into another whole message in response to this question. Maybe you are here this morning and you are searching for answers –

You feel like there is a purpose to your life and you’ve not been able to figure it out.

You know that there is something supernatural about life and science just doesn’t fit.

You are searching for ‘why’ and the answer has not come.

You are wondering how it all ends.

These are good questions and they are all answered in the person, the life, and the work of Jesus. Just seek Jesus.

[1]Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof, 1001 Illustrations That Connect (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 99. [2] Michael Wilcock, The Savior of the World: The Message of Luke’s Gospel, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979), 49. [3] John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018). [4] John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018). [5] John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018). [6] John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).